PASC Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown

The Fee Structure at a Glance

The Pediatric Audiology Specialty Certification (PASC), administered by the American Board of Audiology (ABA), awards the designation Board Certified in Pediatric Audiology (BC-PA). Its pricing is refreshingly simple compared with many credentials: two line items at the front end (an application and an exam registration), then a flat renewal fee every three years. The complication is not the number of charges but the number of ways to misread them, especially around membership status, retakes and the long tail of renewal requirements.

All figures exclude membership dues, which are a separate decision (more on that below). If you want the full eligibility picture before you commit any money, our guide to PASC requirements, eligibility and prerequisites walks through who can actually apply.

Application Fee vs. Exam Fee: How the Two Charges Work

It helps to understand why there are two separate charges. The application fee pays for the review of your eligibility file. That file is document-heavy: a graduate audiology degree from a regionally accredited institution, an official transcript, appropriate audiology licensure or work authorization, documented paid post-degree professional experience, two professional references (one of them a supervisor), and an ethics agreement. You must also document 550 pediatric direct-patient hours and 50 pediatric case-management hours over two consecutive years within the preceding five years. Externship hours do not qualify.

The exam registration fee is what you pay to sit for the test itself, a 120-question exam (100 scored items plus 20 unscored beta items) delivered in 2 hours 30 minutes through Prolydian with Proctor360 live remote proctoring. Because the two fees are billed separately, an application that is not approved is a very different financial outcome from an application that is approved but followed by a missed exam window.

Member vs. Non-Member Pricing

The member discount on the first-time path is USD 80 total: USD 35 off the application fee and USD 45 off the exam registration. Whether that justifies joining depends on what membership costs you and what else you would use it for. The fee schedule for the credential excludes membership dues, so you will need to check current dues on the Academy's site and run the arithmetic yourself.

• If dues exceed the USD 80 first-time savings: membership by itself does not pay for itself on the PASC fees alone. It may still be worthwhile for other reasons (journals, conferences, continuing education pricing).
• If you already hold membership: you capture the discount automatically, and your recertification fee is the same USD 360 either way.
• If you are a non-member who plans to pursue another ABA certification later: the USD 50 second-certification application reduction applies regardless, so membership is not required to benefit from it.

Note that membership status changes your price at registration but not your renewal fee, which is USD 360 for both membership groups.

Costs the Fee Schedule Doesn't Show

The published fees cover the application and the exam. They do not cover the practical costs of qualifying for and sitting the exam. For a pediatric audiologist, the biggest hidden cost is usually not money at all but time: the credential requires roughly two years of post-degree paid experience (the live application specifies a minimum of 2,000 professional hours within two years, while the handbook phrases it as two years of post-degree, full-time (2,000) hours), plus the 550 pediatric direct-patient hours and 50 case-management hours noted earlier. There is no separate "experience fee," but if your current role does not generate enough pediatric hours, you may need to change your caseload or employer first. Our overview of PASC jobs covers the kinds of settings where those hours accumulate.

Remote-Testing Equipment

Because the exam is remotely proctored, your testing setup is your responsibility. You need a desktop or laptop, a webcam, a microphone and a private room. Tablets, phones and Chromebooks do not meet the testing-device requirements, so if your only reliable machine is a Chromebook, borrowing or buying a compliant computer is a real line item. You also need current government-issued photo ID with a signature that matches the name on your registration, and you should expect identity and room checks before the exam begins. There is no dual-monitor allowance, no calculator, no notes and no ordinary breaks.

Preparation Materials

Prep spending is optional and varies widely. Free resources from the certifier, such as the handbook and blueprint, cover scope, while paid practice questions help you rehearse the format. A reasonable approach is to start with the free official documents, then add a practice-question source once you know which domains need work. Our PASC study guide lays out how to sequence that without overspending, and the PASC cheat sheet is a quick way to confirm which facts you should be able to recall cold.

Retakes and the Five-Year Eligibility Window

One of the most financially significant details is how long your approved application stays valid. The current handbook permits testing and retakes for five years, beginning on the first day of the next testing window after your application is approved. An older FAQ counts the five years from the first test date instead. These sources conflict, and the current handbook is the one to follow, but if the distinction matters for your timeline, confirm directly with the ABA before relying on either reading.

Why this matters for cost: within the window, you do not need to resubmit your application documentation or pay a second application fee to retake. After your eligibility expires, you must file a new application, provide documentation again and pay the fees again. In other words, the real price of a delayed or repeated attempt is not just a second exam registration; letting the window lapse can effectively reset the whole USD 520 / USD 600 outlay.

The good news is that the exam's reported outcomes are favorable. The issuer's August 6, 2026 report gives a Spring 2026 first-time pass rate of 82.6%, while 20 of 25 candidates passed overall; these use different denominators and should not be conflated. The reported 2025 first-time rate of 86.9% describes a different cohort. For a full discussion, see what the PASC pass rate data shows, and for how scoring works, see our breakdown of the PASC passing score. There is no fixed universal passing percentage: the standard is criterion-referenced, set using a modified Angoff method, based on the raw score across the 100 scored items with difficulty adjustment.

Renewal Costs Every Three Years

Certification is not a one-time purchase. BC-PA must be renewed every three years, and the renewal fee is USD 360 regardless of membership group. The fee is the smaller part of the burden. The larger part is the continuing education requirement: 60 CE hours in total over the cycle, with continued ethics and licensure compliance.

The CE categories are subsets of the same 60-hour total, not additional hours stacked on top:

• 30 of the 60 hours must be pediatric-focused.
• 15 of the 60 hours must be Tier 1.
• 3 of the 60 hours must be in professional ethics.

Because these overlap, a single qualifying activity can count toward more than one category. Excess hours do not carry forward into the next cycle, so over-earning in one cycle does not reduce your next one. If you budget CE at, say, the cost of typical conference registrations or online courses, spread across three years, the renewal burden is manageable, but it is a recurring expense you should factor into any long-term return calculation. For the broader financial picture, our ROI analysis of the PASC credential and the PASC salary guide put these costs in context.

Where Your Prep Budget Should Go

If you are going to spend money on preparation, spend it where the exam spends its points. The current handbook publishes scored-item allocations of 24, 21, 22, 16, 9 and 8 out of 100, and the issuer's November 13, 2023 blueprint announcement publishes the matching percentage weights. These six domains are formal exam content areas, so they are best used as a map of where scored items concentrate, not as a ready-made curriculum.

The remaining domains carry fewer points but still matter: Medical Audiology (16%), Professional and Regulatory Issues (9%) and Educational Audiology (8%). A candidate who is already strong in educational and regulatory content can reasonably spend less on those and more on the top three. Our complete guide to the six PASC exam domains goes through each content area in more detail, and how hard the PASC exam really is discusses where candidates tend to feel the most pressure.

One Way to Sequence Your Prep Spend

Remember the item format when you choose practice material: every question has four options, with single-answer items having one correct answer and multiple-response items having two or three correct answers. There is no guessing penalty, so leaving an item blank offers no advantage. You can try this style of question on our PASC practice test site, and our overview of PASC training covers other preparation routes.

Timing Your Spend: 2027 Dates and Deadlines

Costs are tied to dates, so it helps to know when money is actually due. The next exam window is May 3-17, 2027. The application deadline is March 9, 2027, and exam registration runs January 12 to April 13, 2027. Note that the application deadline falls before the end of the registration period, which means your application must be submitted and approved first; the exam fee follows once you are eligible to register.

Results arrive approximately eight weeks after the administration, so a candidate testing in the May 2027 window should expect to hear back in the summer. For the full scheduling picture, including how windows repeat, see our guide to PASC exam dates, testing windows and deadlines. If you are still deciding whether the credential is the right fit, our PASC certification overview and What Is PASC Certification? explainer cover the basics, and you can start practicing now at the main practice test.

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